Things I Did In Java

Hi all!

While I’m writing this blogpost I’m already home from my trip to Indonesia for two weeks. Sadly but true. I wish I could go back right now! In this blogpost I will tell you all the hotspots I’ve been to and how much it cost!

So I traveled with my best friend Charlotte. We flew from Dusseldorf to Abu Dhabi were we had a layover for 5 hours and then we flew to Jakarta. We only stayed in Jakarta for the night because we were flying to Yogyakarta the day after. So we didn’t see anything of Jakarta but when we arrived it was very humid and sticky even at 2 am it was still like that so I’m glad we didn’t go to the city.

We first wanted to do the train ride from Jakarta to Yogyakarta but because it takes over 8 hours we decided to go by plane as it’s only a 1 hour flight. We arrived in Yogyakarta at 5pm and had dinner at the cutest local restaurant at the street. It was so delicious and it only costed around €1,40 per person!

So on the first day in Yogyakarta we went to the city. We visited the water temple, the famous trees which you have to walk trough blindfolded because it will bring luck, we’ve been to an art gallery which was so cute! We kind of got forced to go there by all the locals and didn’t know if we should go but eventually we did and I’m happy we did! They showed us how they would make the paintings and we even could try ourselves, it was really cool to see how they were made. I couldn’t leave without buying one so I bought a painting with a tree on it. I even got a photo with the person who made it, she was so thankful I bought one of hers.

The next day we went to the Borobudur Temple by sunrise and after we went to the Prambanan Temples. When we got picked up at the airport we met a local who also did tours to the Borobudur and Prambanan so we already booked this trip when we arrived. Because we wanted to go at sunrise we had to leave at 4am. It was still an hour drive so imagine how big Yogyakarta is (!!). When we arrived the driver would wait for us at the parking lot. We bought our tickets (which was €25 euro’s each) and walked our way to the temple. When I arrived I imagined it to be much bigger I don’t know why because it was still huge anyways haha. We climbed up to get a good spot for the sunrise but because it was really cloudy we sadly didn’t see the sunrise. Although the fog was so magical it didn’t even bother me!

After spending time here for around 2 hours (read: taking photos and filming) we went back to our driver to go to the Prambanan Temples. That was also almost a 2 hour drive. The traffic in Indonesia is so chaotic and because there are so many motorbikes the time to travel takes a lot. We arrived at the Prambanan Temples around 10 am. Two students who were doing tours to improve their English asked us if we wanted them to be our tourgide so they told us a lot about the history and the religion of the temples. It was really impressing! Also the temples got hit by an earthquake in 2006 which made a lot of damage. They have been rebuilding it since then.
It was very impressive to see and I would highly recommend going to both of the temples when you’re in Java!

Because we also wanted to go to the Bromo and Ijen Volcano we went to Jl. Malioboro street. They call it the ‘tourist street’ because you have so many different agencies who are offering these kind of trips.
We went to the first one we saw and it was already a match. The only thing that was a down was that all the train rides from Yogyakarta to Probolinggo were fully booked so we had to go by bus. The bus ride was around 12 hours I think, so it was a long sit. We saw a lot of Java and it’s nature, it’s so beautiful! So much green and endless views over the rice terraces.

When we arrived at our hotel we went straight to bed because we had to wake up at 3am to go to the Bromo viewpoint. The jeep picked us up at our hotel and brought us to the point where we needed to walk the rest of the way. I think it was around a 25 minute walk with really steep paths so it was hard but so worth it! The sunrise there was the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe I witnessed this with my own eyes! The sky went from orange to pink to blue, it was magical.

After the Bromo we went to the Ijen which was also a 5 hour drive. When we got to our hotel we had dinner and went to bed because we had to get up at 1am to go to the Ijen. It started raining when we got there so we walked/climbed for 2,5 hours to see the blue fire and because it was raining we wouldn’t be able to see it. Also when you got to the top you had to go down the crater another hour if you wanted to see the blue fire so I was really disappointed because no one told us that we had to go down to actually see it. But the view was really beautiful and the way down was fun because you got to see all the beauty around the volcano.

If you plan on going to the Bromo/ Ijen make sure you wear a lot of clothes as it gets really cold up there!

So this was everything I did on Java! I loved everything except for the Ijen but I think it was just bad timing after all.

For the Borobudur and Prambanan tour we paid 600.000k in rupiah which was around €35 for two persons. This was only for transport. The entrance tickets for the Borobudur were around €25 per person and for the Prambanan €21 per person. For the Bromo tour we paid around 1.300.000 in rupiah (I don’t know the exact price) €45 per person which included the bus drive / hotel / jeep tour. Again entrance tickets weren’t included. I think it was a total of €45 per person but I’m not sure anymore.

TIP: We booked all of our tours in Yogyakarta itself because it’s so much cheaper then when you do it at home!

If you plan on visiting Java I hope this helps you to make a fun route and to see all the highlights. Of course these aren’t the only things you can do in Java because it is really big with lots of other things to do!